Gallipoli
Guide

This Guide provides a virtual
tour of the peninsula. It features maps, images and
interactive panoramas along with short histories
and information about the battles, and memorials
and cemeteries where New Zealanders are named or
interred.

For nine months in 1915, British and French forces battled the Ottoman Empire - modern Turkey - for control of the Gallipoli peninsula, a small finger of Europe jutting into the Aegean Sea that dominates a strategic waterway, the Dardanelles.
By opening the Dardanelles to their fleets, the Allies hoped to threaten the Ottoman capital, Constantinople (now Istanbul) and knock the Turks out of the war.

Among the British forces were the Anzacs - the Australia
and New Zealand Army Corps - who landed on the peninsula
on 25 April. The landing, like the Gallipoli campaign
itself, was ambitious and ultimately unsuccessful:
the peninsula remained in its defenders' hands.

The campaign was a costly failure for
the Allies: 44,000 British and French soldiers
died, including over 8700 Australians. Among the
dead were 2721 New Zealanders - roughly one-fifth
of those who fought on Gallipoli. Victory came at
a high price for the Turks: 87,000 men died in the
campaign which became a defining moment in Turkish
history.

The Gallipoli campaign was a relatively
minor part of the First World War (1914-18), but
it has great significance for New Zealand's history
and it has become an important symbol of its national
identity. The campaign was the first time that New
Zealand stepped on to the world stage, and the New
Zealanders made a name for themselves fighting hard,
against the odds, in an inhospitable environment.

New Zealand marks the anniversary of the Gallipoli
landings each year on Anzac Day - 25 April - remembering
not only those who died there, but all who have served
the country in times of war. The
Gallipoli battlefields are now part of the 33,000
hectare Gallipoli Peninsula Historical National Park, or the Peace Park.